Women Leading the Future

Usually to celebrate International Women's Day, I write a reflective piece on what's been happening for women in the past year. This year I've decided to do a personal reflection, motivated to a certain extent by my last blog post - the top 10 lessons for successful entrepreneurs. My Women Leading the Future blog is where I talk about how being a woman impacts on my career, my dreams and my aspirations. My company is People Empowered. It has gone through some exciting changes in recent times and I've been thinking about what the factors have been that have inspired that success.

In a sense, it's a check list of 8 important Keys to Success in My Business. I hope it offers others inspiration and motivation.

1. Be Competent In Our Area of Expertise and Experience.

We need to be recognised as knowing our stuff, being current and up to date, moving with latest ideas, thinking and approaches. This means we need to be reading the latest magazines, journals and on line information relating to our professional or industry area. We need to be engaged in on-going professional development and training. Most importantly we need to have the skills to communicate it if we are in an area where we are training and developing others. We can obtain information very easily nowadays, but being able to make that relevant to our professional lives so that it makes a difference to the way we work, requires skills in communicating, good people skills, good "soft skills". I have made a big commitment to all this. In fact, the challenge for me lies in not spending too much time on this and keeping it relevant.

2. Learn Business Skills - Grow and Develop Them.

Many people establish a business because they are passionate about what they do and want to have more control over it. Being good at what we do does not automatically translate into running a successful business. To do that we have to give as much time to working on our business as in it. Many people do this with a coach. Others will attend training and workshops - both live and on-line. Joining professional and industry groups also helps here because ideas are shared. I have given much time in the past 12 months to learning about and implementing promotion,  marketing and planning activities for my business - and it is beginning to produce results.

3. Being Innovative - Coming Up With New Ideas and Approaches.

We have to step outside our comfort zones and try things we may not have tried before - new approaches to the way we do things, for example. This is especially important in these challenging times. I've done lots of different things this year - became involved with social media, podcasts, this blog, been to certain seminars that I normally wouldn't go to, and mixed with people not in my specific professional area so that I can be exposed to new and different perspectives.

4. Being Aware of the Big Picture.

If we stay within the ambit of out narrow area of experience and expertise we may miss the boat. In this global village in which we now live, we need to be aware of what is happening in our professional or industry area across that global environment. Through social media I am involved with people all over the world. I have many people on my mailing list from all over the world. I am linked into forums, groups and blogs that connect me to the sorts of discussion that are taking place all over the world. I am challenged by these to be constantly thinking about where I want to go next.

5. Becoming Digitally Aware and Technological Literate.

The fact that I even cite this as an item in how to be successful is a revelation of my age and vintage! It's taken as a given for Gen X, Y Z. So if you are in the baby boomer generation make a commitment to learning all you can and engaging with this digital environment. A few years back I was a technophobe and progressing to where I am now was quite difficult and painful.  By what I've written above you'll be aware that I now traverse the digital and technological landscape quite easily - even if I do often have to stop and read maps on where to go next. I see my business becoming increasingly reliant on the internet and Web 2.0 technology. More importantly, I need to be open to where the next thing is if I want to remain relevant and able to make a difference.

6. Having Good Support Structures.

This is absolutely essential. Having a partner who supports what I do, will back me with his time, energy - and even finances - has been crucial. Sharing the parenting of our children in times past also was crucially important. In the last year I have also got myself a part time personal assistant who is like a partner in my business. This has made an enormous difference to my work. Instead of me spending hours working out how to do something, she will attend to it in a fraction of the time. I have built a team of reliable support people around me - web developers, graphic designers, computer technicians, marketing people - who I can call on to support my initiatives.

7. Developing and Maintaining Networks.

It's the people we know who also help us to grow and develop our business, our profile and reputation. It is therefore vitally important to develop and grow those networks. I am a committed networker. I love people and love interacting with them. I have had to learn in recent times to be more selective about the networking events I attend, to make sure that I am meeting and building relationships with people who will help me develop professionally and whom I also can help grow and add value to their professional lives as well. Once I have developed some important mutual relationships, I do everything to maintain them, meeting those people on a regular basis, on-line, by phone and through personal meetings. I am venturing into social networking by joining Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter but you'll have to wait before I will herald the value of those, but I believe I have to be there and explore their potential.

8. Having a Flexible Business Plan.

Knowing what we want for our professional lives or business is important to clarify. Planning to achieve it is essential. I have been able to develop an overall plan for the direction I want to go and within that plan detail the multiple steps that will take me there. The flexibility comes in determining which of those steps I take at what time. In the present climate, I am directing my work towards helping people creatively and constructively engage these turbulent times. My client base would see this reflected in changes on my website and in the information I am distributing. My plan hasn't changed, just the marketing and promotional strategy I am using has. With the world moving at the speed it does, flexibility is important.

9. Maintaining Cash Flow.

This is the greatest challenge in any business and mine is no different which is probably why I have left this to last. As the business grows, as my business plan is implemented, this becomes less of an issue. Putting my business on to the Internet and not solely relying on live workshops and coaching for income has contributed enormously in resolving cash flow problems. To wake up in the morning and have emails indicating that money has been placed in my bank overnight is a pretty good feeling!